There is no doubt that teachers play a key role in successfully integrating ICT into education. Realizing the importance of teachers’ capacity, governments, teacher education institutions, private sector, and NGOs alike provide various training for teachers – ranging from how to use a particular software, to how to integrate educational technologies, to how to innovate teaching to promote 21^st century skills. However, more often than not, teachers’ actual use of ICT in the classroom is reported as incremental, merely reinforcing traditional teacher-centred approaches using slides and drill-and-practice exercises. Teachers’ use of ICT to innovate teaching is an exception rather than a norm.

Research shows that there are a number of reasons and factors why teachers are not using ICT in a transformative way. From the policy perspective, a recent study that looked into conditions that foster innovative teaching and learning (2011)[1] attribute the observed incremental change in teaching practices to a disconnect between what the policy envisions and what actually happens in classrooms.

A close examination of lessons learned from past ICT in Education projects of UNESCO Bangkok revealed that the needs of the Asia Pacific region are associated with a lack of alignment and coordination between national ICT-in-education policy and actual teacher development on how to effectively use ICT to enhance pedagogy and student learning. Inappropriate tracking and monitoring of the teachers’ development and actual use/integration of ICT in the field has also been constantly raised in the region and beyond. This ultimately leads to low capacities among teachers to support ICT-in-education policies at the practice level. This issue has been verbalized in various regional and local meetings in the region.

In view of this, through the support of Korean Funds-in-Trust (KFIT), UNESCO Bangkok is implementing the “Supporting Competency-Based Teacher Training Reforms to Facilitate ICT-Pedagogy Integration” Project (KFIT-II Project) from September 2013 to August 2017.  It aims to support Member States in determining and developing the required ICT competencies for teachers that are clearly aligned with their policy vision, goals, and ICT in Education Master Plans.  These national standards would guide the development of a comprehensive roadmap that promotes competency-based teacher ICT training programmes where teachers’ development is systematically guided, monitored, assessed, and tracked at policy and institutional levels. UNESCO Bangkok will utilize the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT-CFT) as a main reference and thereby contribute to the meaningful localization and adaptation of this normative framework at the country level.

Objectives

The specific objectives of the project are:

      1.  To develop a set of generic tools and training modules in the form of a Guidebook to help build national capacity in defining national ICT competency standards and developing an assessment/monitoring system that can be later adapted and localized into the context of a country (to be piloted in three selected countries);

      2.  To build the capacity of national Teacher Education Institutes (TEIs) in developing appropriate curriculum to support the developed national ICT competency standards; and

      3.  To share and disseminate evidence-based information with other member states in the Asia-Pacific region and support localizing the developed tools/training modules into different languages and contexts (the beneficiary countries will be further discussed and selected through steering committee meetings)

It is envisaged that by reforming and converting existing teacher training modules into competency-based, teachers’ development can be systematically guided, assessed, monitored, and tracked at policy and institutional levels.

Activities and Outputs

The project will have four (4) main activities:

• ICT status + vision and policy Development of a Guidebook that consist of a set of tools, training modules on development processes, mechanisms, and sample cases to assist Member States particularly in (1) assessing the current status of teacher ICT competencies in light of existing ICT in Education policies, (2) setting national ICT competency standards for teachers, and (3) developing an appropriate assessment system and curriculum for teachers’ ICT competencies.

• Pilot testing & implementation in 3 countries (Nepal, Philippines, Uzbekistan) to test the viability and effectiveness of the Guidebook, including national consultations and capacity building workshops

• Knowledge sharing through various fora & localization of the Guidebook

• Progress Monitoring & Evaluation

The Project’s outputs and processes employed in the pilot countries would serve as models for other countries to follow suit and develop their own localized roadmaps for teachers’ professional development.

Contact Information

[1]               Innovative Teaching and Learning: Findings and Implications. Standford Research Institute, 2011. URL: www.itlresearch.com Accessed: April 2013

Diverse Approaches to Developing and Implementing Competency-based ICT Training for Teachers: A Case Study  [.pdf, 1.6mb]

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